(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to informational, workflow, marketing analysis, calendaring and contact management system and new business methods suitable for professionals, such as Financial Advisors.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Other contact management systems are known in the art. However, these products fail to meet the needs of a Financial Advisor (FA) as means for associating contact data variables.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,043 by Bates provides means of name lookup based upon predetermined search criteria but fails to allow a user the ability to create search criteria with user defined data fields.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,829,348 by Schroeder provides means to monitor customers' preferences for products or services but fails to provide a user means to test a hypothesis regarding contact associations or trends in contact behavior.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,798,413 by Tracey discloses a workflow management system where contacts are moved from one predetermined category to another. Tracey fails to provide means to create new contact categories or means to prioritize workflow on a dynamic basis or upon user-defined criteria.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a contact management, workflow management and an intelligence gathering application that allows for user defined data fields, testing of hunches regarding contact trends, and integrated note taking.